modern free-thinkers, having indulged themfelves without referve, in laughing at every thing they cannot comprehend, take into their heads to be offended at the Jewish religion. They make no fcruple to ridicule the divine miffion and miracles of Mofes; and after this it will not be wondered at, that they often reject the Chriftian revelation alfo. To trace this fatal unthinking progrefs a little further, ftill they will pretend to expect a future ftate of rewards and punishments, from the principles of the light of nature; but when once they have advanced thus far in infidelity, they are generally foon content to rank themfelves with the beafts that perifh. When perfons have, in this manner, thrown off all regard to religion, can it be fuppofed they can have any ftrong attachment to the diffenting intereft? Some of them may continue to rank among us, from a regard. to the principles of liberty, and other political confiderations; but when religion makes no part of the tie, it may be expected. in general, that the laity will be governed by their own fecular. intereft; and if through the influence of the fame causes, a minifter has become an unbeliever in the religion he profeffes to teach, I do not fee why he may not, with equal confiftency, officiate in the church of England, the church of Rome, or among the Mohammedans, as among the diffenters. This, however, is too often the progrefs of infidelity with the thoughtless and unthinking laity; and to keep them in a proper medium, must be owned to be of great importance, and a matter of great difficulty. I know of nothing that is fo likely to be effectual for this purpose, as the prudent conduct and true moderation of ministers. Let it appear by the whole of your behaviour, that you are frious Chriflians, and not ashamed of any practices which are of real ufe to form a Chriftian and devout temper. Let it be feen that the principles of Chriftianity have a real and happy effect upon your hearts and lives, and tha: by virtue of a practical faith in its great principles, you are poffeffed of an uniform chearfulness of mind, are enabled to live in a firm confidence in divine Providence, under all the events of life, and are prepared to die with composure and good hope. Carefully avoid infulting or ridiculing thofe who differ from you in opinion, efpecially thofe who retain the principles. you yourfelves once held. This fhews as much bigotry and want of real candour as their cenforiousness, and readiness to pafs fentence of damnation upon you. Nay, it may be faid, in excufe for their zeal in condemning your opinions, that they confider them as inconfiftent with falvation, whereas you do not pretend that their opinions are dangerous to them. There may, therefore, be the fincereft friendship in their anger, but there is wanton cruelty in your laughter. Let it appear that. the principal object of your attention is the proper duty of your pro profeffion, and let no taste you may have for any of the polite arts, as mufic, painting, or poetry, nor a capacity for the improvements in fcience, engage you to make them more than an amufement to you, or at the most any more than an object of fecondary confideration. Let not even the ftudy of fpeculative theology prevent your applying yourself chiefly to the advancement of virtue among your hearers. Let your conduct demonftrate, that you confider one foul reclaimed from vicious habits, or even one perfon's mind confirmed in any good resolution, as a greater acquifition to you, than the detection of any fpeculative error, the illuftration of any known truth, or the difcovery of any new ones.' We might, with pleasure, make farther extracts; but these are fufficient for our defign. This anonymous Diffenter, whoever he is, writes with ease and energy, and he appears to be mafter of his fubject: but we muft add, there are marks of negligence and hafte, both in his Яtyle and in his fentiments. We think there appears also some little inconfiftence in what he fays concerning the Puritans, in the two different places where they are mentioned. In another place, fpeaking of fome corruptions retained (as we apprehend he means) in proteftant churches, he adds, Many other corruptions might be mentioned in the fame fyftem with this, which altogether make the whole fyftem of modern Christianity lefs like the Chriftianity of the New Teftament; than it is to the religion of the Brachmans of Indoftan.' The sentence runs off prettily, but the fentiment feems rather the effect of inconfiderate warmth, than of serious, candid enquiry, and accurate obfervation. Hi. The American Traveller: or Obfervations on the prefent State, Culture, and Commerce, of the British Colonies in America; and the farther Improvements of which they are capable. With an Account of the Exports, Imports, and Returns, of each Colony ref pectively, and of the Numbers of British Ships and Seamen, Merchants, Traders, and Manufacturers, employed by all, collectively: Together with the Amount of the Revenue arifing to Great Britain therefrom. In a Series of Letters written originally to the Right honourable the Earl of ****** **. By an old and experienced Trader. 4to. 5s. fewed. Dilly, &c. 1769. ་ TH HE authenticity of the materials here brought together, relating to the commerce of British America, rests upon the anonymous authority of this old and experienced trader, no Vouchers vouchers being produced, and they appear, in general, to be of fuch a nature as might be readily brought into one point of view from the many accounts already published of our settlements, by any experienced compiler, whether an actual trader or not. Whether this is really the cafe, we shall not pretend to determine; but it may be remarked, that the work is called the American Traveller, though no itinerary is given; that a large map of the greateft part of the world is added, without any geographical reference being made to it, or any particular ufe for it appearing; and that a frontispiece is prefixed, exhibiting a party of armed men travelling over the fnow, but whether natives or European traders does not appear, nothing in the work having any connexion with it. That part of the Author's remarks which appears to be most curious and deferving attention, fo far as facts may be found to verify his affertions, is, where he confiders the trade of Hudfon's-Bay, and the tendency of the exclufive monopoly enjoyed by the mall company by which it is managed. Concerning this company, he fays At the time when the Hudfon's-Bay company was established, in 1670, the minds of all people of power, or property, were fo fixed upon the Intrigues of the court, and the confequences immediately apprehended from them at home, that they would not fpare a thought for any thing fo remote in fituation and effect, as foreign colonization, by which means that most important of political enterprizes fell to those, who were in every refpect least qualified to pursue it to advantage. Under thefe inaufpicious circumftances, an exclufive charter for trading to the countries confining on the fea, called Hudfon's-Bay, was, without enquiring into the confequences, granted to a fet of private adventurers, who without fupport or even countenance from government, undertook upon the narrow foundation of their own fortunes to establish a trade, attended with fuch difficulties in appearance, as would have difcouraged any men not fully perfuaded of the certainty of fuccefs. Nor were they difappointed; the event exceeding their most sanguine expectations, in their very first experiments. Such fuccefs from fo weak a beginning, fhewed to what an height it might be carried, on a more extended foundation. But the scheme it fuggefted was very different: inftead of extending their first plan, and making their fuccefs known to procure an enlargement of their capital, the company turned all their care to conceal the whole, (which the diftractions of the times gave them too good an opportunity of doing) and keep the profits of the trade entirely to themfelves, contracted as it was, rather than run the hazard of their being fhared in by others, fhould it be pushed to its natural extent; a care, which, as I have before before obferved to your lordship, has never been relaxed fince. For this fordid purpose, they contented themselves with proceeding on the low capital, which neceffity had at firft obliged them to fet out upon, and making a few paultry settlements, barely fufficient to carry on the reftrained trade which fuch a capital could fupport. The event has in this also too well answered their defign. The inconfiderable amount of their exports, and confequently of the returns, have kept the trade in fuch obfcurity, as to feem beneath the attention of government, whereby it has remained, according to the letter, however contrary to the fpirit of their charter, exclufively in their own. hands. It must be owned that the temptations to this conduct were powerful. Without hazarding, or even advancing more than a comparative trifle, they have long reaped, and do still reap a profit, which a capital ten times as large could not produce in any other channel of commerce; a reason, which too many inftances prove fufficient, in the present times, to over-balance national advantage, and juftify breach of faith; for by no other name can fo manifeft a violation of the profeffions of promoting that advantage, upon which all fuch charters are granted, be called, without as manifeft a violation of truth. I am aware, that it will be objected to this, by those who are interested to keep these affairs in their present state of darknefs, that the imports prove the fufficiency of the capital for the trade, and that it is abfurd and unnatural to think any men fhould be fo blind to their own advantage, as not to make large exports could they have adequate returns for them. The latter of these objections has been already obviated. I fhall now fhew the fallacy of the former, and in what manner the imports are kept down to their prefent low ftand; low, I mean as to what they might be, for they are high beyond all parallel, confidering what they coft. Though the natives of the vaft countries around Hudson'sBay, with whom the traffic of the company is carried on, are ftill in that state of natural ignorance, which people more informed, have arrogantly prefumed to call favage, heaven has not denied them the knowledge neceflary for the few purposes of their narrow fphere of life. They were not long engaged in this traffic, therefore, before they difcovered fome of the grofs impofitions practifed upon them, though they could not poffibly form even a conception of the whole. 'I have observed to your lordship, that the commerce of the Hudfon's-Bay company confifts in bartering fome of our manufactures and commodities, the cheapest and worst of their kinds, with the natives, for their furs. The first thing, which reafon reafon would fuggeft to be done in fuch a traffic, by thofe, who had the lead in it, muft be to fix the rates of the several articles to be brought by them for barter, at fuch a ftandard, as fhould obviate their being ever under a neceffity of altering it, and thereby raising a fufpicion of injuftice in the others, who being neither able to judge of these terms, nor of the accidental circumftances, which might at particular times make an alteration in them neceffary, were they ftruck with exactnefs, would certainly take offence at fuch alteration, though they could not avoid fubmitting to the first establishment, in the making of which I have not prefumed to mention the least regard to justice. But instead of this, a new ftandard is arbitrarily impofed by the company every feafon, not on pretence even of any alteration in the value of their own commodities, or those of the natives, but folely according to the quantity of the latter, the whole of which be it more or less than on other years, they calculate fo as to get for their own, whofe quantity is nearly the fame every feafon. Such an impofition was too glaring to escape unnoticed even by favages, who though they could not fhew their refentment of it, in the fame manner, as people in other circumstances, by difcontinuing the trade, yet did not fail to take the obvious means of preventing it for the future, by bringing no more furs, than their little experience had taught them would fuffice to procure in exchange all the commodities of the company, the quantity of which they alfo knew by experience. The remainder, for in their huntings for food they flay many more of the various animals, than they bring the furs of to market, they either confume themfelves in ufes they might difpenfe with, could they turn them to any better ufe, or actually throw away; practifing out of refentment the fame policy with the Dutch, in regard to their fuperfluous fpices.' The cause and confequences of the conduct, which has been invariably purfued by the Hudfon's-Bay company, ever fince it was eftablifhed, having been confidered, let us now confider what would be the effect, had they adopted a different fyftem, or rather had no fuch establishment been made from the beginning, but the trade left open in its natural ftate; indeed the only ftate in which any trade can prove beneficial to a nation, all monopolies by their principles counteracting the public Intereft, and letting up a private one in oppofition to it. The only trade (or at least the only one worth taking any notice of) carried on at prefent by the Hudson's-Bay company, is the fur-trade. But befide this, there are others already difcovered, which, if pushed to their proper extent, would very foon not |